According to proponents of situated cognition, the human mind is not simply the computing brain. But then, what is it? Proponents argue, "we must pay close attention to the actual material environment in which human cognition takes place and to the way in which we use our bodies -- our whole bodies -- to interact with the world during problem-solving." We have to consider, for example, the way people engage in cognition through tool use, creativity or interaction. Mark Rowlands's The New Science of the Mind is an update of this thesis and defines cognitive processes that "comprise both neural and nonneural bodily processes, as well as processes beyond the boundary of the organism."
There are four major versions of situated cognition:
- the extended-mind thesis - "cognition is constituted partly by elements or processes beyond the boundary of the organism"
- the embodied view - "cognition is constituted partly by nonneural, bodily processes"
- the embedded approach - "genuine cognition occurs inside the organism only -- perhaps only in the skull [but depends] on the contribution of the environment"
- the enactive view - there is "a special role for action in the constitution of cognition," for example, "One does not simply open one's eyes and see... seeing is something one does, by interacting with one's environment"
There are four major versions of situated cognition:
- the extended-mind thesis - "cognition is constituted partly by elements or processes beyond the boundary of the organism"
- the embodied view - "cognition is constituted partly by nonneural, bodily processes"
- the embedded approach - "genuine cognition occurs inside the organism only -- perhaps only in the skull [but depends] on the contribution of the environment"
- the enactive view - there is "a special role for action in the constitution of cognition," for example, "One does not simply open one's eyes and see... seeing is something one does, by interacting with one's environment"
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